285 Kent Is on Craigslist

The recently shuttered, beloved Williamsburg concert venue 285 Kent is available for rent for $8,000 per month.

The recently shuttered, beloved Williamsburg concert venue 285 Kent can be yours for $8,000 a month, if this Craigslist post is to be believed. The newly repainted space—gone are the iconic black scribbles—was just listed as a "converted 1930's-era Internationalist-style dry goods warehouse." The property is available as sublease—i.e., it's being listed by current lessor and concert promoter Todd P, who recently told us, "We’re looking into what we can do to try and pay off the rent and not have to break the lease." At $8,000 a month, he should be able to do that and more, suggests Kunal Gupta, who had helped booked the space when it first opened: "When I was involved in 2011," he posted on Facebook, "the current rent and the landlord lease negotiations—which would be the same lease now plus a minor yearly increase—hovered around $3,600." New York City, everybody.

Update 1/31/14: Todd P sent us this response via email:

a few people seem all up an arms about this, and while this particular ad is not my doing, so what if it had been? The place closed for good reason: it couldn't be made "legal" and people were going to end up in jail if it kept operating, plus would have seen their legal records tarnished against running "legit" spaces in the future... now that's one thing if that happens to me or to Ric Leichtung, but if it happens to the staff that's really not acceptable. But you know what, it's over. It has to become something else now. New York City is expensive for rent, Williamsburg especially, and this space is actually cheap, sadly. But either way, it's not like we can put a exhibition rope around it and preserve it as a museum.